Acoustic Paradise

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked which strings they should use on their guitar...well then I could afford to use Martin's Titanium Core strings on all my guitars (ba-dum-tss)! Seriously though, It's a common question, especially from newer players. And since I've addressed this question numerous times in Facebook guitar related groups, yet it still seems to be asked again and again in those same groups, I thought I'd write a post to spell out my opinion and advice on the subject. What kind of bothers me when I see these conversations on social media is not the fact that people are asking the question. As far as I'm concerned, ask all the questions! But the answers I see in the comments are the troubling thing, just because they're not all that helpful, and yet people who are new to playing guitar are taking them as solid advice. So, what makes those comments unhelpful? Simply put, most people just drop the name of a brand. "You should use D

We've all seen a hundred different lists of the "best acoustic guitar brands," and pretty often I'm sure we all scratch our heads at those lists. Or for some of us, we just can't resist posting our comments about how wrong they are! I've done that enough times that finally it occurred to me: if I'm so sure I know what the best brands aren't ...why haven't I made my own list to tell the world which ones they are ? Maybe because it's not quite as easy as I'd like to imagine it is? Okay. On the surface, it's dead simple. But when you look at the reasons for disagreeing with everyone else's lists, you quickly realize you're probably going to fall into the same traps. Most notably, you're likely going to weight your list heavily based on your own preferences. There is, perhaps, no such thing as an entirely objective list of the best brands. Add to that the fact that many brands include a range of guitars from absolutely awful, t